CIOIN

Back in 2004, SAP CEO called Oliver Bussmann into his office and said, “Oliver, need to start drinking more of our Champaign!” For a Champaign lover, this was good news.  But Bussmann’s CEO was actually asking him to take on the role of CIO for SAP global.

 Bussmann was thrilled, but the Champaign had to wait. Before starting the celebration, he set himself up with a hard target: the 100 day strategy plan. “You have a maximum of 100 days to come up with a strategy with different stakeholders.  You have use quick wits, “says Bussmann with alacrity you associate only with the rich and successful. And that’s exactly what he did.

The 100-day Strategy

 Bussmann’s strategy for SAP was not one of those lofty mission statements that sound impressive on management books. It was simple, clear and crisp like his starched shirts.

 His first move on the day of joining the new office was to move business people into his management team. He called them the Business Information Officers. “This is a huge success factor for transparent and collaborative decision-making, “explains Bussmann.

 Next, Bussmann had to move away from the regular 12-month technical plan to craft a mid-term plan that translates business priority and roadmaps into enterprise architecture, skill management and financial terms. “You need to have clear insight into pipelines and major business investment plans of three to six months if you want to be involved in important business decisions, “says Bussmann.

 The third task for Bussmann was to build a global delivery model. Bussmann belongs to the Hall of Fame for Global Outsourcing and delivery models so this was a project closer to his heart. Building a global delivery model was important not only for SAP to scale but also help the company meet its target of doubling revenue by 2015.

 When his boss asked him to join the new role he wanted Bussmann to move SAP’s IT organization to be as much close to the product organization. “Become the first customer of our products and share your user experience for product enhancement.”

 Communicate Change

  “While you can be super organized about you’re plan, you need to understand that human nature is to resists change, “explains Bussmann.  So here’s what he did: He set up a strong change management communication platform and informed the global stakeholders. What followed were weeks and months of countless face to face meetings, once a week coffee corner sessions, in person or virtual, breakfast sessions, while Bussmann collected a lot of miles on his frequent flyer card. He has a stubborn need to see and speak to his 17000 employees at least once in a quarter. “You need to communicate change multiple times, “says Bussmann resolutely.

 “If you do a good job you can improve employee satisfaction in two years.” And indeed, in the two years that Bussmann’s been SAP’s CIO, the employee satisfaction has jumped from 4 to 6 to 7.3 this year.  

 The social CIO

 But his popularity on social media spells a whole different story.   His Twitter has a bevy of 3000 followers and his blog is one of the most visited blogs of SAP. If you ask him bewilderedly how he manages to hold such a high profile job and yet have the time to tweet and blog he smartly swings out his iPad from his bag. “The iPad had made life so simple. I do all my communication through this little device.”

 Bussmann sets apart 30-45 every night for all his communication. He skims some 200 headline from his favorite sites to get a sense of the hot topics. “I am up to date, “he grins proudly, as his tablet starts buzzing with the latest comments on his last tweet.

  “As a CIO you have to be aware of what going on in the world that interests you. It’s equally important to be a good communicator and influencer.”

 Bussmann is one of the most influential CIOs of Europe. When Germany recently ran a” best CIO of the decade”, be garnered the most number of “likes” on his Facebook page of the event. “For me it wasn’t important to win the competition, but to be able to mobilize 50,000-80,000 people in your community was extremely rewarding.”

 In all, life’s great for the SAP CIO. “The job at SAP, offers me things I can’t do in a normal CIO role. Like speaking to journalists, engaging with customers, presenting financial results, driving innovation. My management sets aside a budget for me to test drive innovation, that’s the kind of confidence they have in IT.

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